Feels a bit like Spring

With temperatures as high as 17℃, it was starting to feel a bit more like Spring. I could even paint outside without wearing gloves for the first time in awhile. This scene is standing on the sharp ridge behind the Glen Hospital looking due south towards st Henri. You can tell by the pink house on top of the old Maltage factory next to the Lachine canal. In the foreground is a highway overpass and part of an off ramp. 

Turcot horizontal pink house, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

There wasn't enough space to get the whole scene down, so I did a second painting composing the foreground elements, along with a compressed mid and background. On the top left is a distant mountain, probably Mount st Hillaire. Mount Sutton is also possible, not sure. The sky was an interesting contrast of dark purple with pastel yellow and orange. I had to paint fast today since it seemed like rain was coming.  

Turcot vertical overpass, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

It never did rain luckily, and by the time I got home the sun was shining. This scene shows part of the Lachine canal where they took out the concrete wall and opened it up to grass wetland, with trees planted. Birds love it here and I could hear red-winged blackbirds chirping away. They live all up and down the shore of the canal and river. 

Melting canal pine trees, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026

The good old rusty water tower, now an iconic landmark in this part of Montreal. Technically, this neighborhood, south of the canal but north of the aqueduct, is called 'South West'. Its a rapidly gentrifying hipster paradise where you can still live in a converted factory loft, and walk down the street to get craft beer or craft whiskey. Unfortunately the st Armand paper maker, which was in the building you see off the right of the painting, had to move. I stocked up, and met the owners, before they left. 

Water tower melting canal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026  

One last quick painting... where there used to be a condo complex, there is now a wide empty sand lot. It looked like the beach in Brazil that we visited, minus the palm trees, and minus the ocean! I'll try to get a better painting of the scene before they build on it, this painting did not quite turn out the way I had in mind. You never know. When I went out earlier in the week on a drizzly day, I was sure that all the paintings would be awful, and there I stood in the drizzle painting the Molson brewery... somebody stopped that day and complimented my painting... then when I saw the painting at home it was amazing, and Cilei loved it so much we put it in a frame and hung it in the place of honour, the bathroom! If you click on the link you will see the painting I am talking about. Point is, I never know when the next masterpiece will occur, its a matter of keep trying. 

Elmhurst beach, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Hue Knows?

Starting off with the central yellow brushstroke, the rest of the composition worked around that element to create a playful mosaic. It was also a so-called 'palette cleanser' which is where I clean the paint blobs on my palette with a paint brush and use the extra colours for a painting instead of just running my palette under the sink tap which wastes a bit of paint. Some artists only use watercolour freshly squeezed from the tube, which makes the paint a bit more potent and thick, but its not practical to do this on location. I am so used to letting the paint blobs dry, and then re-activate with a moist brush when needed. Whatever works! I did a quarterly count of paintings, and I am up to about 162 at the end of March, so a little over 50 per month. I feel like its a high number considering that most of them were on location, some in Brazil. Usually its harder to paint in the winter and I do studio stuff, but to be honest I do not find studio painting very fun in comparison to location painting. These abstracts are all done in studio. By the way, the studio is actually half of our dining room table, I have a grey cloth tablecloth folded over half the table and use it to paint and put all my paint stuff after a painting excursion. 

Hue Knows? watercolour 9 x 6" watercolour paper, April 2026 

Ice chunks, goose, rusty bridge

With the bike path fully open I could make my way down to the end of Lachine park, and found this great view of ice chunks piled up on the shore line. It reminded me of a painting I did of Iceland, as part of my World Inspired Landscapes series. In real life, the ice had a most excellent blue-green tint which seemed to glow against the otherwise gloomy brown and grey background of st lawrence river and south shore. Of course, I used phthalo green (PG7) and phthalo blue (PB15) along with perylene green (PBk31) for the ice, and tints of yellow (PY154). 

Blue-green ice chunks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Geese were flapping about and floating near the shore expectantly, looking for handouts no doubt. I will have to practice painting geese again its been awhile. We have plenty of them, they fly up here to spend the Spring, Summer, and Autumn. 

Goose icy shore, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

The sun was still high in the sky although going down fast... it was a neat effect of backlighting on piles of ice chunks, a pastel mixture of green, pink, yellow and pale blue. To create the sun-beam reflection effect, I applied clean water and dabbed with a clean rag (cut up shirt). I cut up my old white T shirts after they have had the biscuit and they graduate to being paint rags. 

Backlit ice chunks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

I've painted this train bridge many times from various angles. Today I cropped the main support post which is made of stone, and featured the iron-oxide rust using yellow ochre (PY43) and burnt ochre (PR101). Most of the canal is still covered in ice, although big patches of it are getting thin and showing water. 

Rusty train bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Closing out March with drizzle

Hoping the drizzle would end eventually, I rode out to the old Molson Brewery and made a few paintings. Steady drizzle created an interesting textural effect, while some paint smearing added more energy. I got most of it done on location, just had to touch up the points on the bridge and add my initials. 

Bridge Molson drizzle, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 (No. 5081a)

While the other one dried I made this painting of an unusual wall and semi-circle gate with grating. Piles of snow remained. It looks like a tunnel entrance but may be some relic of a past industrial age. It is reminiscent of the Griffintown tunnel that was closed in the 90's. 

Grating stone wall, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026  (No. 5080b)

Here is a close up, it was way too moist and I had to add all the brown at home, which unfortunately did not get the same rainy texture as the rest of the painting. Too bad I could not finish it on location but it was time to head home and good thing I did, it really started to pour by the time I got back to NDG. 

Molson clock, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026  (No. 5079b)

Curio Folio: Venus Pie Trap

Last fall the condo board asked me to trim the grass and tidy up the area around the composter that I use to dispose of fruit and vegetable peelings. To my surprise, there was a group of large Venus fly traps growing behind the composter on the shady side. Venus fly traps are carnivorous plants that lure flies in using a sweet substance, then clamp down and digest them. But looking closer and I saw that these plants had slices of pie in their mouths. I smelled apple pie, my favorite! Reaching out to grab the pie, and the plant clapped down its mouth nearly taking my finger off before I retracted. It was a close call. Then I realized that it was not really apple pie, but a kind of plant-mimic of apple pie, that it must have acquired from the old apple seeds I throw in the composter. The other plants had blueberry pie, strawberry pie, and coconut cream pie... all fake, all deadly. Clearly these plants had evolved to trap humans in their poisonous maw, and I had nearly fallen victim. I actually took a photo of the plants and was about to post that on my blog, but then I recalled a pair of old shoes with the socks still in them back near the compost... and wondered what might have happened. So I erased the pictures off my phone and just posted this painting instead. That way, if needed, I can deny the very existence of these... Venus Pie Traps, as merely a figment of my imagination. So goes another entry of my Curio Folio of amazing new things taking over the world! 

Curio Folio: Venus Pie Trap, watercolour 4 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 (No. 5077)

Curio Folio: Oui Non Device

 

As you may have seen in my latest blog, Montreal has a serious problem with confusing signs. If you need any more convincing check out this painting, or this painting. A start-up company has a new demo product called the Oui Non Device, its completely bilingual although the Yes No font is significantly smaller to comply with our Quebec language laws. The way it works, as you see in the painting, its a light box installed on the dashboard that flashes 'Oui' or 'Non' with a green or red light, depending on the driving circumstances. Lets say you try to turn left, and its okay to do so, then it flashes 'Oui'. Or, you try to park somewhere and its not allowed, it flashes 'Non'. It registers the time of year, bike paths, and construction zones with up-to date information. As an added bonus, if Quebec holds another referendum, you can use it to register your vote since its hyper-linked to the internet. If there is one glitch on the system, is that it will register 'Non' 51% of the time, just to be on the safe side. I saw a version of this being tested in a taxi cab on the way back from the airport, but no photos were allowed so I made this painting from accurate memory to add to my Curio Folio of things you have never seen or wanted to see. 

Curio Folio: Oui Non Device, watercolour 4 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 (No. 5076)

Cacophony of signs, signs of spring

Cacophony usually refers to a mix of noises, but can also refer to a chaotic situation, like these signs. Believe it or not, this is about what it looks like at the entrance to the route 136 highway tunnel under that goes underneath Montreal towards the east. I clipped some of the writing due to space limitation, it said Tunnel Ville Maria, Entree Inderdit quand les feux clingnotte (entrance prohibited when lights flashing). Also, no pedestrians, bikes, Amazon package deliveries, or watercolour painting allowed. A few pylons were placed for good measure. Painting something like this is tricky, it felt like doing a 100 question multiple choice exam.  

Cacophony of signs, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 (No. 5079a)

The connector path between Old Montreal and Peel basin is finally opened again after being Fenced off for the last year or so. I got this view of the highway overpass with the melting ice of the basin below. I liked the two signs here, although in real life they were on separate posts which makes more sense. The interesting dark colour in the melting ice is a mix of burnt umber (PBr7) and indo blue (PB60). 

Peel basin signs, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 (No. 5080a)

Bridge Concorde connects the Old Port to st Helen's island, it was recently renovated to include a better bike path and resurfaced road. I stayed at the beginning of the bridge and painted a scene of the other bridge, Jacques Cartier, in the background. In the foreground are the pale turquoise railing, sidewalk, bike path, divider, and road, all bending to the right. The tall tree had small leaf buds visible. 

Bridge bridge path, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026  (No. 5081a)

  

Another sign of spring, this tree had golden yellow shoots growing upwards, awaiting the sunlight. A thin strip of ice clung to the rocky shoreline. I was looking down to the river from the same vantage point as the bridge painting. Sumac trees grew thick along the shoreline. Its been awhile since I painted water ripples. Today was warm enough to use fresh water which allowed more detail, and made for a more pleasant experience than past days. 

Shore ice tree, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 (No. 5078)